European Federation of Journalists

Who owns the media?


Who owns the media? Whose interest do they serve? The answers to these questions are difficult reach.

Media companies that are owned by major corporations.

To improve media ownership transparency, the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) has endorsed a campaign launched by Access Info Europe for transparent and easy access to information about media ownership.

According to Access Info Europe, a non-governmental organisation promoting access to information, only 9 European countries can the public find out who the actual owners of the broadcast media are from reporting to media regulators or to company registers. This is because disclosure to media regulators of beneficial (ultimate) owners of media outlets is not currently required in most of the countries.

The EFJ has endorsed the 10 recommendations on transparency of media ownership. They are

  1. Disclosure of essential basic information
  2. Information is findable and free
  3. Information is regularly updated
  4. Data is reusable and in open formats
  5. Progressive increase in transparency
  6. Transnational access and comparability
  7. Transparency of influence
  8. Clear and precise legal framework
  9. Oversight by an independent body
  10. Direct disclosure to the public

You can endorse the campaign and join the force to reclaim our media. You can watch the EFJ campaign video launched last year on Stand up for Journalism Day on media onwership.